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The Vicar of Tours-Part5_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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herself and living in contradiction to her true life, to leave others

in peace or refrain from envying their happines. The whole range of



these sad truths could be read in the dulled gray eyes of Mademoiselle

Gamard; the dark circles that surrounded those eyes told of the inward



conflicts of her solitary life. All the wrinkles on her face were in

straight lines. The structure of her forehead and cheeks was rigid and



prominent. She allowed, with apparentindifference, certain scattered

hairs, once brown, to grow upon her chin. Her thin lips scarcely



covered teeth that were too long, though still quite white. Her

complexion was dark, and her hair, originally black, had turned gray



from frightful headaches,--a misfortune which obliged her to wear a

false front. Not knowing how to put it on so as to conceal the



junction between the real and the false, there were often little gaps

between the border of her cap and the black string with which this



semi-wig (always badly curled) was fastened to her head. Her gown,

silk in summer, merino in winter, and always brown in color, was



invariably rather tight for her angular figure and thin arms. Her

collar, limp and bent, exposed too much the red skin of a neck which



was ribbed like an oak-leaf in winter seen in the light. Her origin

explains to some extent the defects of her conformation. She was the



daughter of a wood-merchant, a peasant, who had risen from the ranks.

She might have been plump at eighteen, but no trace remained of the



fair complexion and pretty color of which she was wont to boast. The

tones of her flesh had taken the pallid tints so often seen in



"devotes." Her aquiline nose was the feature that chiefly proclaimed

the despotism of her nature, and the flat shape of her forehead the



narrowness of her mind. Her movements had an odd abruptness which

precluded all grace; the mere motion with which she twitched her



handkerchief from her bag and blew her nose with a loud noise would

have shown her character and habits to a keen observer. Being rather



tall, she held herself very erect, and justified the remark of a

naturalist who once explained the peculiar gait of old maids by



declaring that their joints were consolidating. When she walked her

movements were not equally distributed over her whole person, as they



are in other women, producing those graceful undulations which are so

attractive. She moved, so to speak, in a single block, seeming to



advance at each step like the statue of the Commendatore. When she

felt in good humour she was apt, like other old maids, to tell of the



chances she had had to marry, and of her fortunate discovery in time

of the want of means of her lovers,--proving, unconsciously, that her



worldly judgment was better than her heart.

This typical figure of the genus Old Maid was well framed by the



grotesque designs, representing Turkish landscapes, on a varnished

paper which decorated the walls of the dining-room. Mademoiselle



Gamard usually sat in this room, which boasted of two pier tables and

a barometer. Before the chair of each abbe was a little cushion



covered with worsted work, the colors of which were faded. The salon

in which she received company was worthy of its mistress. It will be



visible to the eye at once when we state that it went by the name of

the "yellow salon." The curtains were yellow, the furniture and walls



yellow; on the mantelpiece, surmounted by a mirror in a gilt frame,

the candlesticks and a clock all of crystal struck the eye with sharp



brilliancy. As to the private apartment of Mademoiselle Gamard, no one

had ever been permitted to look into it. Conjecture alone suggested



that it was full of odds and ends, worn-out furniture, and bits of

stuff and pieces dear to the hearts of all old maids.



Such was the woman destined to exert a vast influence on the last

years of the Abbe Birotteau.






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